About Me

Director of the non-profit Archaeological Associates of Greenwich. Author of Oxford University Press books for young people: Stonehenge, Valley of the Kings and Cahokia Mounds. Former governing board member of the AIA, Education Chair.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ROMAN NINTH LEGION?

The disappearance of Rome's Ninth Legion has long baffled historians, but could a brutal ambush have been the event that forged the England-Scotland border, asks archaeologist Dr Miles Russell, of Bournemouth University.

The theory that 5,000 of Rome's finest soldiers were lost in the swirling mists of Caledonia, as they marched north to put down a rebellion, forms the basis of a new film, The Eagle, but how much of it is true?

For the English, the massacre of the Ninth is an inspiring tale of home-grown Davids" successfully taking on a relentless European "Goliath". For the Scots, given the debate on devolved government and national identity, not to say the cultural impact of Braveheart, the tale has gained extra currency - freedom-loving ghlanders resisting monolithic, London-based imperialists.

The legend of the Ninth gained form thanks to acclaimed novelist Rosemary Sutcliff, whose masterpiece, The Eagle of the Ninth, became an instant bestseller when published in 1954.

But historians have dissented, theorizing that the Ninth did not disappear in Britain at all, arguing both book and film are wrong. Their theory has been far more mundane - the legion was, in fact, a victim of strategic transfer, swapping the cold expanse of northern England, for arid wastes in the Middle East. Here, sometime before AD 160, they were wiped out in a war against the Persians. But, contrary to this view, there is not one shred of evidence that the Ninth were ever taken out of Britain.

In fact, the last certain piece of evidence relating to the existence of the Legion from anywhere in the Roman Empire comes from York where an inscription, dating to AD 108, credits the Ninth with rebuilding the fortress in stone. Some time between then and the mid-2nd Century, when a record of all Legions was compiled, the unit had ceased to exist.

The early years of the 2nd Century were deeply traumatic for Britannia. The Roman writer Fronto observed that, in the reign of the emperor Hadrian (AD 117 - 138), large numbers of Roman soldiers were killed by the British. The number and full extent of these losses remain unknown, but they were evidently significant. The anonymously authored Augustan History, compiled in the 3rd Century, provides further detail, noting that when Hadrian became emperor, "the Britons could not be kept under Roman control".

The fact that they took up residence in the legionary fortress of York suggests that the "great losses" of personnel, alluded to by Fronto, had occurred within the ranks of the Ninth.

It would seem that Sutcliff was right after all.

It was the Ninth, the most exposed and northerly of all legions in Britain, that had borne the brunt of the uprising, ending their days fighting insurgents in the turmoil of early 2nd Century Britain.

The loss of such an elite military unit had an unexpected twist which reverberates to the present day. When the emperor Hadrian visited Britain at the head of a major troop surge, he realised that there was only one way to ensure stability in the island - he needed to build a wall.

The ultimate legacy of the Ninth was the creation of a permanent border, forever dividing Britain. The origins of what were to become the independent kingdoms of England and Scotland may be traced to the loss of this unluckiest of Roman legions.

Dr Miles Russell is a senior lecturer in Prehistoric and Roman Archaeologyat Bournemouth University.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12752497

COLLAPSE OF MAYAN CIVILIZATION BLAMED ON ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE

The collapse of the Mayan civilization was due to environmental damage caused by deforestation and damage to the agricultural system, a leading U.S. archaeologist said at the 3rd International Congress on Mayan Culture.

"It was a collapse and not an abandonment, because the second is temporary; while the first represents an abandonment over the long term and the destruction of the social and economic system that maintains a state, as occurred in the said region," Dr. Richard D. Hansen said at the opening of the conference in the Caribbean city of Merida.

Hansen, senior scientist at the Institute for Mesoamerican Research in the Department of Anthropology at Idaho State University, said that the Mayan cities of the "Pre-classic" period (1000 B.C.- A.D. 150) were "the world's largest in terms of their volume." He said that these cities were "located in the Mirador-Calakmul Basin, a settled region on both sides of the border between Mexico and Guatemala.

Hansen, who is leading the Mirador Basin research project in Guatemala, said that the fall of cities including Nakbe, Wakna and Tintal occurred toward the end of the Pre-classic period due to the excessive exploitation of natural resources.

This was similar to what occurred at the end of the Classic period (A.D. 300-900) in cities such as Palenque, Copan and Tikal, due to environmental damage stemming from the excessive cutting of trees for (fuel) ... and production of stucco with which they recovered the buildings, the expert said.

He went on to say that the "'conspicuous' consumption of natural resources caused deforestation and damage to the agricultural system, which hindered cultivation of enough food to maintain a population that during that period reached around 1 million residents throughout the Basin." Hansen said that this conclusion is the product of 30 years of study during which he collected archaeological evidence, including pollen, isotopes, ceramics, among other things, that allowed him to verify the environmental depredation.

HOMO ERECTUS HAD A "TOOL MILL" IN CHINA SOME 600,000 YEARS AGO

Xinhau News reported the discovery of an early to middle Pleistocene stone tool making factory used by Homo erectus in the Lushi Basin, South Luo River, in central China on March 6, 2011. The discovery was published in the Journal of Human Evolution.

The discovery was dated using pedostratigraphic analysis, optically stimulated luminescence, and magnetostratigraphic analysis to between 600,000 and 620,000 years of age. The site is representative of flake and core technology and is similar in comparison to other sites in China where Homo Erectus has been found.

This is the first discovery of a "factory" for tool making which may indicate a higher level of sophistication in the organization of Homo Erectus society than waspreviously known.

The discovery was a collaborative effort by Australian and Chinese researchers.

STONE TOOLS FROM CALIFORNIA'S CHANNEL ISALNDS

A collection of delicate stone tools discovered on California's Channel Islands (USA) indicate that early humans in the Americas were hunting local waterfowl some 11,200 to 12,200 years ago. "The points we are finding are extraordinary," Jon Erlandson, director of the University of Oregon's Museum of Natural and Cultural History said. Made primarily from local chert using a bifacial technique, the tools "are ultra thin, serrated and have incredible barbs on them. It's a very sophisticated chipped-stone technology," he explained. "This is among the earliest evidence of seafaring and maritime adaptations in the Americas," Erlandson said. Previous evidence had suggested only prolific local hunting around the islands from some 8,000 to 10,200 years ago.

Fifteen stone crescents, 52 small stemmed barbed points and a sampling of other tools from Santa Rosa Island, along with 31 crescents, 32 stemmed points and 23 Amol points found on San Miguel Island, are described in a paper published online March 3 in Science. "We think the crescents were used as transverse projectile points, probably for hunting birds," Erlandson said.

The artifacts are associated with the remains of shellfish, seals, geese, cormorants and fish; they were recovered from three sites that date to the end of the Pleistocene epoch on Santa Rosa and San Miguel islands, which in those days were connected as one island off the California coast, and the researchers suggest that these areas might have been seasonal hunting grounds. Sea levels then were 50 to 60 meters (about 160-200 feet) below modern levels. Rising seas have since flooded the shorelines and coastal lowlands where early populations would have spent most of their time.

Torben Rick, curator of North American Archaeology at the Smithsonian Institution and co-author of the new paper, added that the tools "show that very early on, New World coastal peoples were hunting such animals and birds with sophisticated technologies that appear to have been refined for life in coastal and aquatic habitats." The early inhabitants might have also been engaged in trading networks. One Santa Rosa Island tool was made of obsidian from a volcanic area some 300 kilometers away.

The findings suggest that these early islanders were not members of the land-based Clovis culture, Erlandson said. No fluted points have been found on the islands. The researchers also note that the shape of the tools echoes the shapes of those found on the Pacific coast of South America and as far away as Japan, suggesting that the early Californians were not a western branch of the Clovis culture, but rather from a more coastal diaspora that rimmed the Pacific.

Six years ago, Erlandson proposed that Late Pleistocene sea-going people may have followed a 'kelp highway' stretching from Japan to Kamchatka, along the south coast of Beringia and Alaska, then southward down the Northwest Coast to California. Kelp forests are rich in seals, sea otters, fish, seabirds, and shellfish such as abalones and sea urchins. Taken together, the tools found recently by the researchers reveal "another extension of the diversity of Paleoindian economies," Erlandson said. The next challenge, Erlandson and Rick noted, is to find even older archaeological sites on the Channel Islands, which might prove that a coastal migration contributed to the initial peopling of the Americas, now thought to have occurred two to three millennia earlier.

Edited from EurekAlert!, Scientific American (3 March 2011)http://tinyurl.com/6cvul6a[2 images]http://tinyurl.com/66snpsw[1 image]

STONEHENGE -- LASER SCANNING FOR A DIGITAL SURVEY

Stonehenge is being scanned using modern laser technology to search for hidden clues about how and why it was built. The survey includes all the visible faces of the standing and fallen stones of Stonehenge, including Station, Heel and Slaughter stones, as well as the top of the horizontal lintels which have never before been surveyed at this level of detail. Some ancient carvings have previously been found on the stones, including a famous Neolithic 'dagger'. The survey is already in progress and is expected to finish by the end of March, 2011.

"The surfaces of the stones of Stonehenge hold fascinating clues to the past," said English Heritage archaeologist Dave Batchelor. The team will be looking for ancient rock art, but also for more modern graffiti (see the photo for possible graffiti of Christopher Wren), in a comprehensive survey of the site.

The new survey will be the most accurate digital model ever for the world famous prehistoric monument, measuring details and irregularities on the stone surfaces to a resolution of 0.5mm. The previous survey in 1993 was photographic, and only measured to an accuracy of about 2cm. "This new survey will capture a lot more information on the subtleties of the monument and its surrounding landscape," said Paul Bryan, head of geospatial surveys at English Heritage. Laser scanning is also being used to map the earthworks immediately around the stone circle, and the surrounding landscape. The study will provide precise base-line data to monitor the physical condition of the monument which is subjected to daily weathering. Digital data of this unprecedented level of detail will also be a valuable resource to anyone who produces reconstruction models, drawings and computer generated images of the monument for public understanding and interpretation.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

A NEW GENETIC STUDY PROPOSES MODERN HUMANS MAY HAVE ORIGINATED FROM SOUTHERN AFRICA

Data has shown that hunter-gatherer populations in the region had the greatest degree of genetic diversity, which is an indicator of longevity. It says that the region was probably the best location for the origin of modern humans, challenging the view that we came from eastern Africa. The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"Africa is inferred to be the continent of origin for all modern human populations," the international team of researchers wrote. "But the details of human prehistory and evolution in Africa remain largely obscure owing to the complex histories of hundreds of distinct populations."

Co-author Brenna Henn, from Stanford University, California, said the team's study - the most comprehensive of its kind - reached two main conclusions.

"One is that there is an enormous amount of diversity in African hunter-gatherer populations, even more diversity than there is in agriculturalist populations," she told BBC News. "This is a landmark study, with far more extensive data on... hunter gatherer groups than we have ever had before, but I am cautious about localizing origins from it”

Dr Henn added: "The other main conclusion was that we looked at patterns of genetic diversity among 27 (present-day) African populations, and we saw a decline of diversity that really starts in southern Africa and progresses as you move to northern Africa."

She explained that the team's modeling was consistent with the serial founder Effect. This refers to a loss of genetic variation when a new population is established by a very small number of individuals from the original, larger population. "Populations in southern Africa have the highest genetic diversity of any population, as far as we can tell. So this suggests that this might be the best location for (the origins) of modern humans."

Chris Stringer, a leading palaeontologist based at the Natural History Museum, London, said: "The new paper... suggests that the genes of the Namibian and Khomani bushmen (southern Africa), Biaka pygmies (Central Africa) and the Sandawe (East Africa) appear to be the most diverse, and by implication these are the most ancient populations of Homo sapiens."

Professor Stringer, who was not involved in the study, added: "This is a landmark study, with far more extensive data on... hunter gatherer groups than we have ever had before, but I am cautious about localizing origins from it." He said that the ranges of these groups were currently quite limited, but rock paintings by ancient populations that had been linked to the Bushman hinted that they were once far more widespread.

"It seems more likely that the surviving hunter-gatherer groups are now localized remnants of populations that formerly ranged across much of sub-Saharan Africa 60,000 years ago," he told BBC News. Professor Stringer said that he no longer thought that there was a single "Garden of Eden" where we evolved. Instead, he said, "distinct populations in ancient Africa probably contributed to the genes and behaviors that make up modern humans".

HOMO ERECTUS HAD A "TOOL MILL" IN CHINA SOME 600,000 YEARS AGO

A recent finding in central China of a prehistoric tool mill dates to 600,000 years ago. These were used by Homo Erectus in the Lushi Basin, South Luo River. The discovery was dated using pedostratigraphic analysis, optically stimulated luminescence, and magnetostratigraphic analysis which authenticated the aforementioned period.

Basically, the Lushi Basin site shows that Home Erectus actually had some sort of tool factory (100 stone implements were found), where flake and core technology, similar to other tools used by Home Erectus and found in China at other sites, proving that they actually were organized at a greater level of sophistication then previously thought.

LATE NEANDERTHAL TOOLS FOUND IN GREEK MOUNTAINS

ATHENS, Greece - High in the wind-swept mountain ridges of northern Greece, archaeologists have made a surprising discovery: hundreds of prehistoric stone tools that may have been used by some of the last Neanderthals in Europe, at a time when hunter-gatherers were thought to have kept to much lower altitudes.

The two sites used between 50,000 to 35,000 years ago were found last summer in the Pindos Mountains, near the village of Samarina — one of Greece's highest — some 400 kilometers (250 miles) northwest of Athens.

At an altitude of more than 1,700 meters (5,500 feet), the Pindos Neanderthal sites are the highest known so far in southeastern Europe, although that's probably because nobody thought of searching so high before, archaeologist Nikos Efstratiou said Wednesday.

Efstratiou and a team of Italian colleagues started the Pindos survey in 2003, pinpointing more than 200 small concentrations of up to a dozen tools. But last summer's discoveries were much richer, and their location challenged theories that modern humans' extinct, thickset cousins were constrained in their movements to lowland areas.

"We found hundreds of tools, which means that these people continuously visited and revisited these locations, for hundreds or thousands of years," said Efstratiou, a professor at the University of Thessaloniki."They were moving at high altitudes of up to 2,200 meters ... and not lower, along river beds, which we believed until now was the only course these groups followed."

The closest extinct relative to modern people, Neanderthals lived in much of central and southern Europe and western Asia from about 400,000 years ago to about 30,000 years ago. They coexisted with modern humans for 30,000 to 50,000 years, and recent genetic research suggested that the two species interbred.

Efstratiou believes the Neanderthals were drawn to the water-rich highlands by the animals they hunted, which favored the open, treeless spaces, and an abundance of flint that they chipped into tools and weapons. "We found flint blades and sharp-tipped implements ... with which they hunted and skinned their prey," he said.

"It appears that these late groups of Neanderthal hunter-gatherers may have been among the last that survived in Europe," he added. "Although not everybody agrees on this, it seems that because climate conditions in central Europe were very unfriendly, they moved south in search of warmer areas.

Sunday, March 06, 2011

CALIFORNIA CHANNEL ISLANDS SHOW EVIDENCE OF EARLY SEAFARING

Evidence for a diversified sea-based economy among North American inhabitants dating from 12,200 to 11,400 years ago is emerging from three sites on California's Channel Islands.

Reporting in the March 4 issue of Science, a 15-member team led by University of Oregon and Smithsonian Institution scholars describes the discovery of scores of stemmed projectile points and crescents dating to that time period. The artifacts are associated with the remains of shellfish, seals, geese, cormorants and fish.

Funded primarily by grants from the National Science Foundation, the team also found thousands of artifacts made from chert, a flint-like rock used to make projectile points and other stone tools.

Some of the intact projectiles are so delicate that their only practical use would have been for hunting on the water, said Jon Erlandson, professor of anthropology and director of the Museum of Natural and Cultural History at the University of Oregon. He has been conducting research on the islands for more than 30 years.

"This is among the earliest evidence of seafaring and maritime adaptations in the Americas, and another extension of the diversity of Paleoindian economies," Erlandson said. "The points we are finding are extraordinary, the workmanship amazing. They are ultra thin, serrated and have incredible barbs on them. It's a very sophisticated chipped-stone technology." He also noted that the stemmed points are much different than the iconic fluted points left throughout North America by Clovis and Folsom peoples who hunted big game on land.

The artifacts were recovered from three sites that date to the end of the Pleistocene epoch on Santa Rosa and San Miguel islands, which in those days were connected as one island off the California coast. Sea levels then were 50 to 60 meters (about 160-200 feet) below modern levels. Rising seas have since flooded the shorelines and coastal lowlands where early populations would have spent most of their time.

The technologies involved suggest that these early islanders were not members of the land-based Clovis culture, Erlandson said. No fluted points have been found on the islands. Instead, the points and crescents are similar to artifacts found in the Great Basin and Columbia Plateau areas, including pre-Clovis levels at Paisley Caves in eastern Oregon that are being studied by another UO archaeologist, Dennis Jenkins.

Six years ago, Erlandson proposed that Late Pleistocene sea-going people may have followed a "kelp highway" stretching from Japan to Kamchatka, along the south coast of Beringia and Alaska, then southward down the Northwest Coast to California. Kelp forests are rich in seals, sea otters, fish, seabirds, and shellfish such as abalones and sea urchins.

"We think the crescents were used as transverse projectile points, probably for hunting birds. Their broad stone tips, when attached to a dart shaft provided a stone age shotgun-approach to hunting birds in flight," Erlandson said. "These are very distinctive artifacts, hundreds of which have been found on the Channel Islands over the years, but rarely in a stratified context, he added. Often considered to be between 8,000 and 10,000 years old in California, "we now have crescents between 11,000 and 12,000 years old, some of them associated with thousands of bird bones."

The next challenge, Erlandson and Rick noted, is to find even older archaeological sites on the Channel Islands, which might prove that a coastal migration contributed to the initial peopling of the Americas, now thought to have occurred two to three millennia earlier.http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-03/uoo-cig022411.php